Chuck’s Hop Shop is a popular, low-key place to go in the Greenwood and Central District neighborhoods of Seattle. They feature hundreds of beers, dozens of taps to choose from, and ciders galore. Rotating food trucks are parked outside both locations every day of the week, and it’s family and dog friendly, making this the place the ultimate neighborhood bar.

One of the best things about Chuck’s is the casual atmosphere, the knowledgable staff, and of course, the beer. Diving deep into research, visiting the locations and getting a feel for who they really are.

The brand characteristics of Chuck’s Hop Shop are passionate, knowledgable, neighborly, and candid. These words, along with the brand position and promise, guided my process and drove my design decisions. I came up with a color palette that is friendly and inviting, using textures to promote the neighborly and passionate aspect of the brand.

Source Sans Pro was the main type family I used for it’s structured, modern, and straightforward look. No frills here. The logo typeface is handmade, with little knobs and imperfections for a candid feel.

Chuck’s logo, brand promise, and color palette are shown, with the logo being used in a variety of colors.

Poster. 18″x24″. A low-cost and easy way for Chuck’s to advertise in their local neighborhoods is through posters. This one in particular is promoting their popular trivia nights, hosted every Wednesday.

Branded store assets. Dogs friends are welcome in Chuck’s, which inspired these illustrations. They are used in the coaster design and the beer glasses, etched using the laser cutter. One coaster design features a spinning wheel with the dogs head, to help you pick out your next brew. The other design are fun beer facts.

The glasses feature the dog illustrations and one with a beer measure. The logo is featured on the opposite side of the glasses.

These menus are simple and are set out on the tables at Chucks. They let the customer know what brewery is being featured for the week, along with a couple of snacks and a recommendation to eat at the food truck.

The website features their featured brewery, and calendar with events and food truck information. Their ever changing beer menu is updated online as soon as they put this information in the system.

See The Process

You can see an example of Chuck’s original logo and branding as it is now. As a collaborative group, 6 of us dove into research and wrote out the creative brief. We went through a series of exercises to help us come up with the brand character, brand promise, and brand positioning.

Once this task was complete, we split off and worked individually or in parters to take the brand in the direction we felt fit to do so. I chose to work individually on this project.

I took the brand characteristics and started mapping out some tonal images to help form my look and feel for the brand.

From my tonal images and research, I created a moodboard. The characteristics Chuck’s is made most of are neighborly and candid. I used textures, candid moments, and a friendly, muted color palette to create the ton for the brand.

I started off with the new logo design. Creating word lists and doing word associations helped me to gather ideas for the logo. From there, I began the sketching process for the logo.

The logo was a tough spot for me. I was really trying to dig out something besides using the actual hop in the logo. I played with textures, and researched how beer is made. I sketched and iterated almost 100 times, finally coming to a place where I was happy with it.

There is a process of beer making, when it whirlpools to separate the liquids and the excess ingredients. This was this inspiration for the final logo.

The final logo is textured, the text for Chuck’s is hand drawn, giving it a neighborhood and candid feel. The bar color can be switched out with any of the Chuck’s color palette, making it useful for special event and promotions. It is also a reminiscent shape and texture as if you were looking down into a freshly poured glass of beer.

Once the tone, look and feel, and the logo was nailed down, I went on to create the additional collateral. Using wood and laser etching help to convey the textures throughout the brand, and the friendly color palette and dog illustrations let people know that all are welcome.